But if you like Symbian, the E7 is a classy, beautiful piece of hardware. It's a step up from the Nokia N8 ($549, 2.5 stars), with one exception (which I'll get to below). That said, while E7's larger screen and hardware keyboard solve two of the N8's major issues, all of the software-related ones remain. And the E7 is even more expensive.
Nokia has never had a problem designing impressive hardware. The E7's sleek aluminum and glass body feels expensive to the touch. It measures 4.9 by 2.5 by 0.5 inches (HWD) and weighs a heavy but solid-feeling 6.2 ounces. It's one of the classiest designs I've seen in a while. The 4-inch, AMOLED glass capacitive touch screen looks bright and vibrant, and touch response is well-calibrated. But the screen offers just 640-by-360-pixel resolution, which doesn't match higher-end Android and iPhone 4 devices in sharpness.
